Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in 2015: ‘The Scottish Patient Safety Programme, marks Scotland as a leader, second to no nation on earth, in its commitment to reducing harm to patients, dramatically and continually.’

Only Ireland’s Salmon seem to be more profitable for producers than Scottish salmon. Here are the main suppliers’ EBIT [Earnings before interest and taxes] per kg:

Ireland 3.40 euros

Scotland 3.10

Norway 2.50

Canada 2.35

Chile 1.45

Marine Harvest Scotland made 198 million euros in the Q2 of 2017, compared to 149 million in Q2 of 2016. That’s a very impressive growth rate in one year of 33%.

According to Marine Harvest Scotland who employ 700 staff on the farms and a further 500 in Rosyth where the fish is processed:

‘This performance, the highest ever for half year results, is largely due to bigger fish and a healthy market thanks to strong demand for salmon….The introduction of wrasse and lumpsuckers has helped reduce sea lice levels. This pioneering work will now be followed by a scaling up of the company’s production, with plans to invest £3.5million in farming cleaner fish. Other measures include the use of a thermolicer, skirts around the salmon farm nets, and hydrolicers, which remove lice from the environment with the help of gentle water pressure.’

This is, in part, explanation as to how Scotland produced 28% of the UK’s food and drink exports with only 8% of the population.

4 thoughts on “Scottish Salmon the second-most profitable in the World”

Ludo ThierryAugust 29, 2017 / 5:30 pm

Hi John – Hi all.

That is excellent news regarding the good profitability of Scottish farmed salmon and the high (and growing) employment that this industry supports here in Scotland.

Recently the impressively well informed readership of this blog were speculating on the various measures being taken to address the identified sea-lice issue and it looks as if the combined wisdom of the blog was pretty much spot on.

Forgive me a slight extra pleasure derived from reading this article from fishupdate.com when I noticed its author being one Jenny Hjul (well known BritNat fanatic (with typewriter) of this parish).

Ms. Hjul seems to produce a lot (all?) of the pieces for fishupdate.com and it must be driving her berserk (OK, I admit she was there already – but maybe a bit berserker still?) to produce all these articles demonstrating how Scotland – (yes, that same Scotland – the Too Wee, Too Poor etc Scotland) is carving out a major stake in this global industry.

I clicked on one of the linked articles (dated 14/08) and learned that Marine Harvest have placed a major order for Feeding Barges with a firm called Gael Force:

GAEL Force has secured a contract to supply a series of feed barges to Marine Harvest, the largest ever single order for the Inverness based supplier.

The initial deal for three new SeaMate concrete barges will create an extra 20 jobs at Gael Force, doubling capacity at its manufacturing facility.

Because the bulk of the silo capacity of the barge is below the waterline, it creates a very small visual footprint, as well as high levels of noise suppression above and below the water, due to 300mm thick walls.

Gael Force Group managing director Stewart Graham said: ‘We are now building our 80th feed barge for the industry, and have been proud to supply all of the main Scottish salmon producers, including many previous barges for Marine Harvest.

‘As a direct consequence of the success of Scottish salmon we have created many new jobs this year and will continue to recruit on the back of this order.

‘It should be recognised that when all of the stakeholders in our industry, including producers, planners and regulators, work together then we can grow together,’ said Graham, who is also co-chair of the recently formed Industry Leadership Group, which was set up with the aim of doubling growth in the salmon sector in Scotland.

The 20 new jobs generated at Gael Force as a result of the Marine Harvest order will add to the 43 staff who have already joined the company this year.
Gael Force also anticipates that a minimum of another 12 jobs will be created in the group’s own supply chain and the wider rural Highland economy.

Gael Force Group is currently attending Aqua Nor, the aquaculture industry’s most prestigious exhibition in Trondheim, Norway, where visitors can observe a demonstrations of SeaFeed, in addition to pen technology offerings, including SeaSight Underwater Cameras, SeaLight Underwater Lights and SeaGuard Seal Deterrents.

So – not only are the Fish Farm companies exporting but it seems as if the Scottish based suppliers are actively exhibiting their innovative products at international trade fairs to expand their markets.

if Jenny Hjul has to report much more of this stuff I wouldn’t wonder if she hasn’t converted to YES by the time of the Indyref!

Demoted to fish indeed! Fish are top class, that’s a promotion! I hope you are right, Ludo, about a yes conversion – the BritNats are so angry all the time, they need to embrace what they know is the right thing and be at peace with themselves – imagine always trying to argue for the bleak, never-changing, grim future, when you could be holding forth about the possibilities of a bright, vibrant future with so many opportunities?

Ah yes, I remember it well, that was good chat about the fish lice, certainly learned a lot (oh how right you are Ludo about having to educate yourself on so many different subjects just for the cause), but I wish John had mentioned lumpsuckers back then, bet that would have livened the chat even more. :-p